Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 News Road to Milano Cortina 2026

[orangeman 2,002]

4 hours ago, phelps said:

in Italy 1 p.m. is NOT afternoon yet...

 

it's lunch time (and here, Sunday's "lunch" is actually a ritual like a wedding reception for most families)

 

afternoon means 3 or 4 p.m. (which would be a reasonable start time), not earlier

 

p.s. personally, I'd rather have the men's Hockey final on Saturday at 9 p.m. (and I'd get rid of the playoff round...I don't like that all 12 teams advance to the knockout stage...top 2 in each group + the best 2 3rd ranked advancing straight to the quarterfinals would be a lot better, but that's another story)

I mean, it has to be at 1pm just in case it goes into OT/SO, to have time to start the Closing Ceremony. It was at 2pm in Turino. You could move it to Saturday night, but other big events are happening at that time that would be overshadowed. Broadcasters wouldn't want to have to choose between the figure skating gala and the gold medal hockey game, for example. In Canada it'd be a national civil war on whether to watch the curling game or the hockey game. The men's gold medal game is sort of like the marathon in the SOG, it's just the highlight before the Olympics close. 

 

Plus it's a great excuse to day drink. 

[NearPup 3,069]

Gawd the men's Olympic gold medal game is gonna be at 4am Seattle time x.x

 

Living on the US west coast sucks when it comes to watching European sports

[Olympian1010 7,989]

2 hours ago, NearPup said:

Living on the US west coast sucks when it comes to watching European sports

You still have the entirety of the 2024-2025 season to acclimatize at least. 
 

PDT might be one of the tougher time zones for following international sports though. I’ve had a lot of late nights and early mornings.

[heywoodu 15,174]

3 hours ago, NearPup said:

Gawd the men's Olympic gold medal game is gonna be at 4am Seattle time x.x

 

Living on the US west coast sucks when it comes to watching European sports

Depends on if you've got things like work or a child (or more) to worry about. If not (no children, free from work/school), I honestly think the time zone really doesn't matter, no matter if it's 12 hours ahead, 12 hours back or the same as one lives in  

 

Edit: I should specify I mean this for an event lik the Olympics specifically, so a roughly 2-week period. It is of course a lot harder for the regular sports seasons throughout the year, one can hardly throw around their daily schedules all year long as easy as for a 2-week period.

Edited September 20 by heywoodu

[phelps 7,704]

14 hours ago, orangeman said:

I mean, it has to be at 1pm just in case it goes into OT/SO, to have time to start the Closing Ceremony. It was at 2pm in Turino. You could move it to Saturday night, but other big events are happening at that time that would be overshadowed. Broadcasters wouldn't want to have to choose between the figure skating gala and the gold medal hockey game, for example. In Canada it'd be a national civil war on whether to watch the curling game or the hockey game. The men's gold medal game is sort of like the marathon in the SOG, it's just the highlight before the Olympics close. 

 

Plus it's a great excuse to day drink. 

given the current IIHF rules, even a 5 p.m. start wouldn't overrun any ceremony (which will start at 9 p.m., pretty sure, even if it's not official yet)

 

in Turin it was 2 p.m. and it was definitely too early, not an "Italian" start time at all (actually, already in 2006 the schedule had nothing to do with any Italian interest/habit, which makes me even more angry this time...errors are human, repeating the same errors is...)

 

frankly, I could make a better schedule than that with closed eyes

[orangeman 2,002]

3 hours ago, phelps said:

given the current IIHF rules, even a 5 p.m. start wouldn't overrun any ceremony (which will start at 9 p.m., pretty sure, even if it's not official yet)

 

in Turin it was 2 p.m. and it was definitely too early, not an "Italian" start time at all (actually, already in 2006 the schedule had nothing to do with any Italian interest/habit, which makes me even more angry this time...errors are human, repeating the same errors is...)

 

frankly, I could make a better schedule than that with closed eyes

It's not just TV audiences, I'm sure there's actual logistics on the ground. Media, fans and players from the game might need to get to the CC. Security might be an issue. When I went to the CC in Beijing 2022, they had the whole Olympic Green secured due all the officials going to the event. I don't think they can have the hockey game pouring out with drunk/excited fans next door as that's setting up. Never mind the traffic around the venues, etc. And that was during a limited audience Games due to Covid. On top of that, I'm sure networks want a pause between the last event of the Games and the Closing Ceremonies. That's a time a lot of them do a recap, video montages, interviews, recognition of staff, etc. It's not even to satisfy the North American market, because a later start would be better for us, too. 

 

I get that 1pm is not "afternoon" to Italians, but the Olympics aren't just for the host country. A lot of logistics go into them that us laymen don't even know about. 

[Faramir 367]

But what's up with this drunk fans thing, is ice hockey like rugby?

Do the Dutch speed skating fans at the Olympics also get drunk usually?

[orangeman 2,002]

38 minutes ago, Faramir said:

But what's up with this drunk fans thing, is ice hockey like rugby?

Do the Dutch speed skating fans at the Olympics also get drunk usually?

They serve beer, I'm sure. I got a little....lubricated at the women's gold medal game in 2018 in the early afternoon. By the time I was at curling in the evening I was a bit over it, though. Visiting Canada House between might have added to the lubrication. They did not have beer in Beijing 2022. Heck, they barely had food and the gift shop closed before the game started. Anyway, the point is, yes hockey fans drink beer occasionally. 

Edited September 20 by orangeman

[intoronto 5,674]

Keep in mind the closing ceremony is also not in Milan. Usually the IOC president hands out medals at the Hockey gold medal game. And then they need to leave straight for Verona. The 1pm time is to have built in contingency .

[JonPhi 250]

And in the Nordic events, they were very creative again... yet they once again copied the same crap from the previous games. For the cross-country skiers, the first week is completely packed, so not everyone competed in every event, and the entire second week consisted only of team sprints and the 50 km race …

 

Unfortunately, there were no night events for the Alpine skiers in Bormio, even though there were floodlights available.